Fantomina

Fiction

Haywood, Delarivier Manley and Aphra Behn were seen as "the fair triumvirate of wit" and major writers of amatory fiction. Haywood's prolific works moved from titillating romance novels to the amatory during the early 1720s to works, focusing more on "women's rights and position" (Schofield, Haywood 63) in the later 1720s into the 1730s. In the middle novels of her career, women would be locked up, tormented and beleaguered by domineering men, but in the later ones of the 1740s and 1750s marriage became a positive move for men and for women.

Due to the system for paying authors in 18th-century publishing, Haywood's novels often ran to multiple volumes. Authors would be paid only once for a book and receive no royalties: a second volume meant a second payment.

Title page of Love in Excess, 1720

Haywood's first novel, Love in Excess; Or, The Fatal Enquiry (1719–1720) touches on education and marriage. Often classified as a work of amatory fiction, this novel is notable for its treatment of the fallen woman. D'Elmonte, the novel's male protagonist, reassures one woman that she should not condemn herself: "There are times, madam", he says "in which the wisest have not power over their own actions." The fallen woman is given an unusually positive portrait.

Idalia; or The Unfortunate Mistress (1723) divides into three parts. In the first, Idalia appears as a young motherless, spoiled, yet wonderful Venetian aristocrat, whose varied amorous adventures carry her over most of Italy. Already in Venice she is sought by countless suitors, among them the base Florez, whom her father forbids the house. One suitor, Florez's friend Don Ferdinand, resigns his suit, but Idalia's vanity is piqued at the loss of an even a single adorer, and more from perverseness than from love continues to correspond with him. They meet, and he eventually effects her ruin. His beloved friend Henriquez conducts her to Padua, but also falls for her charms. He quarrels with Ferdinand and they eventually kill each other in a duel.

In the second part, Henriquez' brother, Myrtano, succeeds as Idalia's principal adorer, and she reciprocates. She then receives a letter informing her of Myrtano's engagement to another woman, and so she leaves for Verona, hoping to enter a convent. On the road her guide takes her to a rural retreat with the intention of killing her, but she escapes to Ancona, from where she takes ship for Naples. The sea captain pays crude court to her, but just in time to save her from his embraces, the ship is captured by corsairs commanded by a young married couple. Though the heroine is in peasant dress, she is treated with distinction by her captors. Her history moves them to tears and they in turn are in the midst of relating to Idalia an involved story of their courtship when the vessel is wrecked in a gale.

In the third part, Idalia is washed ashore on a plank. Succoured by cottagers, she continues her journey towards Rome in a man's clothing. On the way, robbers beat her and leave her for dead. She is found and taken home by a lady, Antonia, who falls in love with her. Idalia later discovers that Antonia's husband is her dear Myrtano. Their happiness is marred by the jealousy of his wife, who first tries to poison everyone and then appeals to the Pope to separate them. Idalia is taken to Rome first to a convent, where she leads a miserable life, persecuted by all the young gallants of the city. Then one day she sees Florez, the first cause of her misfortunes. With thoughts of revenge, she sends him a billet, but Myrtano keeps the appointment instead of Florez. Not recognising her lover, muffled in a cloak, Idalia stabs him, but upon recognising him is overcome by remorse, and dies by the same knife.

Title page of Fantomina, 1725

Fantomina; or Love in a Maze (1724) is a novella about a woman who assumes the roles of prostitute, handmaid, widow and lady, to seduce repeatedly a man named Beauplaisir. Schofield points out: "Not only does she satisfy her own sexual inclinations, she smugly believes that 'while he thinks to fool me, [he] is himself the only beguiled Person'" (p. 50). The story asserts that women have some access to social force – a recurring theme in Haywood's work. It has been argued that it owes a debt to the interpolated tale of an "Invisible Mistress" in Paul Scarron's Roman Comique.[9]

The Mercenary Lover; or, The Unfortunate Heiresses (1726) examines the risks women face in giving way to passion. Miranda, the eldest of two heiress sisters, marries Clitander, the mercenary lover of the title. Unsatisfied with Miranda's half of the estate, Clitander seduces Althea, the younger sister, by plying her with romantic books and notions. She gives way to "ungovernable passion" and becomes pregnant. Clitander fools her into signing over her inheritance, then poisons her, killing both her and the unborn child.

The Distress'd Orphan; or Love in a Madhouse (1726) is a novella that relates the plight of a woman falsely imprisoned in a private madhouse. In Patrick Spedding's A Bibliography of Eliza Haywood, he notes that The Distress'd Orphan; or Love in a Madhouse was more "enduringly popular", "reprinted more often, in larger editions, and remained in print for a longer period, than... Love in Excess" (p. 21).[10] It recounts the story of Annilia, who is an orphan and heiress. Her uncle and guardian Giraldo plans to gain access to her fortune by having her marry his son, Horatio. When Annilia meets Colonel Marathon at a dance and they fall in love, she rejects her uncle's plan and prepares to move out of his home. In response, Giraldo declares her insane and has her confined in a private madhouse, so gaining control over her inheritance. Annilia languishes in the madhouse until Marathon enters it as a supposed patient and rescues her.

Title page of Adventures of Eovaai, 1736

The Adventures of Eovaii: A Pre-Adamitical History (1736), also entitled The Unfortunate Princess (1741), is a satire of Prime Minister Robert Walpole, told through a sort of oriental fairy tale. The Anti-Pamela; or, Feign'd Innocence Detected (1741) is a satirical response to Samuel Richardson's didactic novel Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), making fun of the idea of bargaining one's maidenhead for a place in society. (Their contemporary Henry Fielding also reacted to Pamela in 1741 with An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews.) The Fortunate Foundlings (1744) is a picaresque novel, in which two children of opposite sex experience the world differently, in line with their gender.

The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751) is a sophisticated, multi-plot novel that has been deemed the first in English to explore female development in English. Betsy leaves her emotionally and financially abusive husband Munden and experiences independence for a time before she decides to marry again. Written a few years before her marriage-conduct books were published, the novel contains advice in the form of quips from Lady Trusty. Her "patriarchal conduct-book advice to Betsy is often read literally as Haywood's new advice for her female audience. However, Haywood's audience consisted of both men and women, and Lady Trusty's bridal admonitions, the most conservative and patriarchal words of advice in the novel, are contradictory and impossible for any woman to execute completely.[11]

Betsy Thoughtless marks a strong change in 18th-century fiction. It portrays a mistaken, but intelligent and strong-willed woman, who gives way to society's pressures to marry. According to Backsheider, Betsy Thoughtless as a novel of marriage, rather than the more popular subject of courtship, foreshadows a type of domestic novel that will culminate in the 19th century, for example in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Instead of concerning itself with attracting a worthy partner, Betsy Thoughtless examines marrying well; its heroine learns that to give way to the role of women in marriage can be fulfilling.

The fullest and most detailed bibliography of Haywood is by Patrick Spedding.[12]


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